Turkey warplanes once again bombard northern Iraq
TEHRAN, Apr. 16 (MNA) – Turkish fighter jets conducted air raids on areas in Iraqi Dohuk province in the north on Saturday, local Iraqi media said.
An Iraqi source told the Iraqi Arabic-language al-Maloumeh news website that Turkish warplanes targeted the Korzar heights and surrounding areas near the villages of Nahili and Bari Kari in the Dirluk district of the Al-Emadiyah county in Dohuk province on Saturday.
The source added that "In the airstrike, the farmlands belonging to the people in the region were targeted and the residents had to evacuate for the city of Dirluk district as they were concerned for their safety."
Turkish warplanes attack villages in the Iraqi Kurdish region in the north almost on a daily basis despite opposition and condemnation from the Iraqi and Kurdish authorities.
Iraq has repeatedly called on Turkey to end the violations of its sovereignty and territorial integrity while Ankara says that it targets the PKK elements' hideouts in the region.
Iraq-Halliburton Deal on Gas to Be Decided After Eid Holiday
, Bloomberg News
(Bloomberg) -- Iraq’s cabinet may make a decision on reactivating a deal with Halliburton Co. to drill wells in the western gas field in Akkas next month, Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar said in a televised interview.
Iraq’s oil ministry has in recent months dispatched two exploration teams to get more clarity on the reserves of oil and gas in the region. The deal with Halliburton will enable the oil ministry to get clear data on the production capacity of the Akkas field and reach a decision after Ramadan, which ends in early May, the minister said.
Talks with Chevron Corp. and Saudi Aramco on investment in the region “will depend on the data we get from the exploration and well-drilling operations,” Abdul Jabbar said in the interview that aired on Al-Forat channel.
If global prices continue at this level, the selling price for Iraqi oil for this month would average $106-$107 a barrel, he added.
The oil ministry is providing 30 million liters of gasoline a day for consumption, which Abdul Jabbar called a “big” number. Work on a new refinery in Karbala has been delayed by Covid-19 but the facility is expected to enter service in the first quarter of 2023, he added. The country will continue to import gasoline until 2024.
Abdul Jabbar said 80% of the contracts that the Kurdistan Regional Government signed with oil companies are correct and the rest need to be reviewed. The KRG has no problem with 50% of the solutions the federal government offered to resolve the oil issues in Kurdistan.
The region exports 430,000 barrel per day, Jabbar said.
Baghdad has long sought to bring Kurdish production under its control in exchange for funds from the national budget as compensation and a February ruling in Iraq’s top court asserted the central government’s right to the semi-autonomous region’s hydrocarbons.
Read more: Baghdad Tells Kurdistan to Move Oil Assets to New Company
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
Kawa Nader Qader | Exclusive to Ekurd.net
What the world is confronting nowadays and the quick events unfolding in the Middle East are open to all possibilities. It is hard for a political observer to predict the course of events or the outcomes of significant changes that may result in new coalitions and lineups. What will the effect be? What repercussions or consequences, whether positive or negative, will they have on the Kurdish political arena and the issue of Kurdistan in general? Let us particularly mention the following:
– The Russian-Ukrainian war triggered the energy crisis in most countries of the European continent, especially the industrial capitalist ones, due to their dependence on Russian gas by 40% to meet their needs in this field, estimated at (155 billion cubic meters). Additionally, the crisis of the high prices of some foodstuffs and other essential supplies for citizens jumped by 24% compared to the same period last year, with an estimated increase of 4.1% per month since the outbreak of that war.
Suppose the fight continues for a prolonged period, with dire consequences for the countries and their citizens alike, and large waves of mass protests erupt across the continent. In that case, they will spiral out of control and be difficult to mitigate. The anticipated situation worries European countries because they are unwilling to adjust their strategy to confront Russia through the Ukraine war and stop the expansion of Russian eastward, as they see it.
European countries are tense about the lack of energy. They have pinned their hopes on developing the energy infrastructure of Middle East countries that produce oil and gas to increase their shares and meet the European market’s energy needs on the one hand. On the other hand, reduce reliance on Russian gas and hold energy prices as stable as possible in the global market.
However, obtaining the volumes required to compensate for Russian gas and deliver it to Europe will not be as simple as some anticipate, especially given that Russia is a powerhouse with political and military clout in the Middle East. It is hard to ignore or underestimate it. Not to mention European countries’ inability to withstand the domestic implications of energy scarcity.
There are also hints of a breakthrough in the Iran nuclear dispute. The US removed pro-Iranian Yemeni Houthis from the terror list, while Iran expressed no interest in remaining on the Quds force on the same list. And lifting the embargo on the five billion Iranian dollars in the South Korean banks is a possible indication of a glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel and bringing Iran back on the energy map to compensate for the lack of energy in Europe.
If this happens, it will motivate Iran to pursue its expansionist tendency in the region, known as the Shiite crescent, at the expense of Sunni Arab countries.
Iran is a regional power; no one can underestimate it. For fear of Iran, the Arab countries (especially some Gulf states) embraced and approached Israel and signed the “Abraham” security, economic, and military treaty.
Consequently, the Ukrainian and Iranian conflicts will affect the Middle East region, including Kurdistan. The developments and outcomes that they produce unavoidably reflect all aspects of Kurdistan’s life, especially the political ones. Let us mention some elements here:
The normalization of Turkey’s relations with Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia The recent revival of Turkish and American Ties The meeting of Turkish-Israeli and Turkish-Emirati presidents, as well as the handing over of the case of Saudi journalist “Jamal Khashoggi’s” murder in Turkey to Saudi Authorities These steps indicate that Erdogan’s government is reverting to his previous foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu’s “zero problems” strategy with neighbors. The recovery of those relations will undoubtedly be at the expense of the Kurdish people because Erdogan has never stopped utilizing all of his available capabilities and accessible opportunities to strike at the aspirations of the Kurdish people.
As with all successive Turkish governments, what accompanies this government is the horrific panic and the chronic fear of the Kurdish issue, or the Kurdish phobia.
As for Iran, maintaining its position as an influential regional power and signing security agreements with Turkey and Iraq will negatively affect the Kurdish situation in the region. In a contradictious manner, the leaders of the Kurdish parties in southern Kurdistan are neglecting the ongoing events that have disastrous results or severe impacts on the Kurdish issue in the whole region. They preoccupied themselves with marginal issues and side disputes to obtain cheap partisan gains or narrow subjective whims instead of closely monitoring the current changes in the map of relations between states and regional powers.
Despite all of the probable scenarios and unfavorable expectations that loom on the horizon, the Kurds do not have to accept the fate that the occupiers of their homeland have planned for them because the Kurdistan National Liberation Movement remains active in the region:
– As a significant political and military power, it has an impact on the formation of military and political equations in the region, as well as the difficulties of imposing a media blackout or waging a savage psychological war and disinformation operations against it, as was the case in the previous century.
– Not to mention that the rate of oil extracted from Kurdistan constitutes 4.5% of the world’s production. In contrast, it corresponds to 13.8% of the oil of OPEC countries and reaches 19% of the quantities of exports oil in the entire Middle East region. If we add to it the amounts of extracted gas, the position of Kurdistan on the energy map in the area and the world becomes clear. And this qualifies it to guarantee its place among the countries that compete to supply Europe with energy, which contributes to strengthening its political reality.
Kurdistan’s geography and rugged mountainous terrain provide a haven for the national liberation movement. In addition to strengthening the spirit of resistance, confrontation, and challenge of the Kurdish people and providing them with strong support to repel or defeat the fierce attacks of invaders and occupiers greedy for its natural resources, the irresponsible attitude of the ruling Kurdish parties towards the occurring circumstances represents the Achilles’ heel in weakening the Kurdish cause, which is embodied in:
– Another obstacle is that the opposition parties in the Kurdistan region’s political arena are keeping pace with the approach followed by the ruling parties. They sometimes pursue a populist policy to seize power or obtain several official positions and personal privileges from the Kurdistan Democratic Party president, Massoud Barzani. He has demonstrated himself as a Kurdish reference in the region by tickling the false national sense and hollow patriotic sentiments and ensuring the support of Israel, Turkey, and Iran to provide security, intelligence, and military services.
The proper outlet relies on the masses’ strength and national and patriotic depth, paying attention to Kurdistan’s interests rather than the invaders’ interest in executing their recommendations and requests. It is up to them to strengthen and consolidate the Kurdish presence to deal with the current changes in the international and regional arena. The way to do this work is by paying attention to the national project, relying on the Kurdish self-defenses forces and Kurdish public opinion, staying away from playing on the margins of events in the region, and raising the rate of Kurdish demands to a level that benefits the Kurdish majority. Otherwise, if the situation continues, the Kurdish leadership will reap nothing but disappointment and dependence on others while remaining pawns in the game of nations.
Kawa Nader Qader, a Kurdish writer from Iraqi Kurdistan.
Read more by Kawa Nader Qader
Kurdish-Israeli relations and the unfair double standards! 5.4.2022
The opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of Ekurd.net or its editors.
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